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Vaccine Nation: Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress
'This book tells the story of how vaccines transformed the public health landscape and suggests what we might do to restore public trust in their e?cacy and safety.' Professor Trish Greenhalgh OBE, University of Oxford
Vaccine Nation, from world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, examines the history of vaccines, how vaccines work, vaccine safety, public policy, new technologies like mRNA and the effects of the COVID pandemic on the anti-vaccination movement. At the same time as vaccination rates are falling globally, miraculous new developments in vaccines means we have new tools to fight cancer and other chronic diseases. At a critical time when the threat of an influenza pandemic is looming and disinformation is booming, MacIntyre argues that science must reclaim the stage, or we may lose centuries of gains that vaccines have brought to the world.
Vaccine Nation, from world-leading epidemiologist Raina MacIntyre, examines the history of vaccines, how vaccines work, vaccine safety, public policy, new technologies like mRNA and the effects of the COVID pandemic on the anti-vaccination movement. At the same time as vaccination rates are falling globally, miraculous new developments in vaccines means we have new tools to fight cancer and other chronic diseases. At a critical time when the threat of an influenza pandemic is looming and disinformation is booming, MacIntyre argues that science must reclaim the stage, or we may lose centuries of gains that vaccines have brought to the world.
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
Published May 1, 2025
13 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 28, 2025
So relieving to know there are such educated and powerful health professionals like Dr Raina who are trying to shout from the rooftops all the issues we face with COVID and the degradation of public health infrastructure. In the medico world it’s still a bunch of people with their fingers in their ears pretending Covid is just a cold and nothing serious.
So many fantastic one liners too, far too many quotes underlined… Wear a mask queens and get boosted for flu and Covid and vaccines you may have missed in your life
So many fantastic one liners too, far too many quotes underlined… Wear a mask queens and get boosted for flu and Covid and vaccines you may have missed in your life
April 30, 2025
[review for Tasmanian Times]
Epidemiologist and biosecurity expert, Professor Raina McIntyre, has written a terrific new book, Vaccine Nation, which celebrates medical science, then highlights the bad news - we’re not only passively turning away from science, we’re actively turning against it.
For an increasing minority, ‘science’ represents conspiracy – to force us into an oppressive UN world government, to infect school children with a ‘woke mind virus’, to destroy our economy by accepting the ‘climate hoax’, or to give our kids autism via vaccinations which may also insert microchips that assist UN control our every thought.
While we see this nonsense spread by fossil fuel interests to stall action on global heating, by the far Right to ‘flood the zone with shit’ and herd the worried working class toward fascism, and by the ‘Russian firehose’ of disinformation to destabilise Western democracies,– it’s not just the uneducated underclass swallowing the red pill.
Subtitled, Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress, McIntyre’s Vaccine Nation celebrates the science that brought us the mechanism that has saved hundreds of millions of lives – immunisation by vaccination.
McIntyre takes us through the basics of how vaccines work, how lives are saved, how and why the myths and unfounded fears form, and, finally, how the fringe views of the anti-vaxxers have become insidiously mainstream – lodging even within the medical establishment.
COVID taught us many things, and McIntyre outlines how we got it wrong sometimes and how we mostly got it right.
In case you need reminding, there have been 7 million confirmed deaths from the virus and its variants, with an estimated total death number between 19 and 35 million.
While there was a rocky road in dealing with it, COVID vaccines saved an estimated 20 million people in the first year vaccines were rolled out, and far more since.
And that’s just vaccinations for a single viral disease; the totals of people saved from severe illness or death from all diseases prevented or mitigated by vaccines are incalculable. And yet, in an era when families don’t have to routinely have eight or more live births for two or three to survive past the age of five, we’re arrogantly dismissing vaccines as ‘deadly’ – as causing the disease and other great harms.
Influencers like Pete Evans in Australia, or RFK Junior in the US, have an inordinate reach with a powerful message of fear – that vaccines are unnecessary and dangerous, and an equally powerful call to action – to reject ‘Big Pharma’ and the corrupt medical establishment, and instead eat well and allow children to become ill in order to ‘naturally’ prime and strengthen their bodies’ own immune systems.
Claims against vaccination, especially for COVID, became ever more outlandish but, because ‘a lie travels half way around the world while the truth is still putting its boots on’, it suited the reactionary Right and New Age Left to echo the lies that provided them with a satisfying validation of their existing views. Trump’s presidency during the start of the outbreak saw mishandling and conspiracies win out over the science, and the US saw a death toll four times higher than the global average. Their extra economic losses went into the trillions.
Worse, the politicisation of public health departments and leaders left knowledge gaps, as some doctors without the most specific and up-to-date experience were given lead roles in decision-making and providing a public face for advice.
Some of the loudest voices of those with medical degrees weren’t public health specialists.
Remember the confusing delay about recommending the wearing masks in the early days because distancing and hand-washing would do the job of prevention?
Fortunately, Doctor McIntyre’s approach in Vaccine Nation is thorough, careful and extensive – providing positive approaches to handle the ongoing COVID epidemic, and a clear warning that we are, again, not yet prepared for the next pandemic.
Vaccination rates of all diseases are falling, distrust of medicine and science is growing – politicians and our public health services need to understand why, and act before the next pandemic. Vaccine Nation will immunise you against disinformation, and have you ready to celebrate the gifts that keep giving us life – vaccines.
Vaccine Nation is essential reading for public health nurses and doctors, and for all politicians needing to understand the complex and competing demands of public policy management during a health crisis.
Epidemiologist and biosecurity expert, Professor Raina McIntyre, has written a terrific new book, Vaccine Nation, which celebrates medical science, then highlights the bad news - we’re not only passively turning away from science, we’re actively turning against it.
For an increasing minority, ‘science’ represents conspiracy – to force us into an oppressive UN world government, to infect school children with a ‘woke mind virus’, to destroy our economy by accepting the ‘climate hoax’, or to give our kids autism via vaccinations which may also insert microchips that assist UN control our every thought.
While we see this nonsense spread by fossil fuel interests to stall action on global heating, by the far Right to ‘flood the zone with shit’ and herd the worried working class toward fascism, and by the ‘Russian firehose’ of disinformation to destabilise Western democracies,– it’s not just the uneducated underclass swallowing the red pill.
Subtitled, Science, reason and the threat to 200 years of progress, McIntyre’s Vaccine Nation celebrates the science that brought us the mechanism that has saved hundreds of millions of lives – immunisation by vaccination.
McIntyre takes us through the basics of how vaccines work, how lives are saved, how and why the myths and unfounded fears form, and, finally, how the fringe views of the anti-vaxxers have become insidiously mainstream – lodging even within the medical establishment.
COVID taught us many things, and McIntyre outlines how we got it wrong sometimes and how we mostly got it right.
In case you need reminding, there have been 7 million confirmed deaths from the virus and its variants, with an estimated total death number between 19 and 35 million.
While there was a rocky road in dealing with it, COVID vaccines saved an estimated 20 million people in the first year vaccines were rolled out, and far more since.
And that’s just vaccinations for a single viral disease; the totals of people saved from severe illness or death from all diseases prevented or mitigated by vaccines are incalculable. And yet, in an era when families don’t have to routinely have eight or more live births for two or three to survive past the age of five, we’re arrogantly dismissing vaccines as ‘deadly’ – as causing the disease and other great harms.
Influencers like Pete Evans in Australia, or RFK Junior in the US, have an inordinate reach with a powerful message of fear – that vaccines are unnecessary and dangerous, and an equally powerful call to action – to reject ‘Big Pharma’ and the corrupt medical establishment, and instead eat well and allow children to become ill in order to ‘naturally’ prime and strengthen their bodies’ own immune systems.
Claims against vaccination, especially for COVID, became ever more outlandish but, because ‘a lie travels half way around the world while the truth is still putting its boots on’, it suited the reactionary Right and New Age Left to echo the lies that provided them with a satisfying validation of their existing views. Trump’s presidency during the start of the outbreak saw mishandling and conspiracies win out over the science, and the US saw a death toll four times higher than the global average. Their extra economic losses went into the trillions.
Worse, the politicisation of public health departments and leaders left knowledge gaps, as some doctors without the most specific and up-to-date experience were given lead roles in decision-making and providing a public face for advice.
Some of the loudest voices of those with medical degrees weren’t public health specialists.
Remember the confusing delay about recommending the wearing masks in the early days because distancing and hand-washing would do the job of prevention?
Fortunately, Doctor McIntyre’s approach in Vaccine Nation is thorough, careful and extensive – providing positive approaches to handle the ongoing COVID epidemic, and a clear warning that we are, again, not yet prepared for the next pandemic.
Vaccination rates of all diseases are falling, distrust of medicine and science is growing – politicians and our public health services need to understand why, and act before the next pandemic. Vaccine Nation will immunise you against disinformation, and have you ready to celebrate the gifts that keep giving us life – vaccines.
Vaccine Nation is essential reading for public health nurses and doctors, and for all politicians needing to understand the complex and competing demands of public policy management during a health crisis.
May 22, 2025
Excellent book about the truly terrifying state of affairs that is global health right now. Everyone should read this.
October 7, 2025
A fantastic overview of vaccinations and why they are so important. MacIntyre is clearly an expert in the field and offers a wide range of insights into the history of vaccines, how they work, and why public health advice should strongly support their use.
In a time when there is so much confusion, distrust, and misinformation, MacIntyre's decades of expertise provide an informed and compelling perspective on the topic.
In a time when there is so much confusion, distrust, and misinformation, MacIntyre's decades of expertise provide an informed and compelling perspective on the topic.
December 21, 2025
I found some chapters much more interesting than others. Chapter 4 where weak or false evidence can be used to make false claims certainly being one but also chapter 12 where MacIntyre discusses sexism and racism in research and medicine. Power imbalances both on a national level and in the field where money can have its influence in what research is done and who gets to do it and how it can advance careers. I had not heard of the (deregistered for malpractice) Australian doctor trying to saw off a healthy leg following the Bali bombings as an opportunistic person taking advantage of vulnerability of others during a disaster. p160.
Much of the latter part of the book looks at trying to work out how to disseminate accurate information to the public and correct or reduce people falsely accepting misleading information. Sadly I'm pessimistic on this front. once people have lost trust in an institution (government, medical or news source), anything they say can be interpreted as having a negative consequence. I agree it's great if doctors or researches can accurately and quickly respond to questions from doubters, but all to often the it takes time and maybe further research. ln many or most cases caveats are needed such as "vaccines are ALMOST always safe".
A note for my fading memory:
p48. regarding young males COVID 19 infection also causes myocarditis and pericarditis at a rate much higher than seen following vaccination (50-180 per 100000 following infection compared to 2-8 per 100000 after vaccination.
Much of the latter part of the book looks at trying to work out how to disseminate accurate information to the public and correct or reduce people falsely accepting misleading information. Sadly I'm pessimistic on this front. once people have lost trust in an institution (government, medical or news source), anything they say can be interpreted as having a negative consequence. I agree it's great if doctors or researches can accurately and quickly respond to questions from doubters, but all to often the it takes time and maybe further research. ln many or most cases caveats are needed such as "vaccines are ALMOST always safe".
A note for my fading memory:
p48. regarding young males COVID 19 infection also causes myocarditis and pericarditis at a rate much higher than seen following vaccination (50-180 per 100000 following infection compared to 2-8 per 100000 after vaccination.
June 30, 2025
A bit dry and clinical but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
December 1, 2025
The content is so important for our time but the structure made it hard to follow sometimes due to tangents or some arguments not clarified well.
January 2, 2026
Morbidly fascinating. Also quite terrifying on the impact of the antivaccination movement.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews